PORRES, MARTÍN de, blessed. - Dominican lay brother, b. at Lima on 9 Dec. 1579, d. there on 3 Nov. 1639.
A black mulatto, Bl. M. was the son of a noble Spanish knight and a Mexican woman. At the age of fifteen he entered the convent of the S. Rosario at Lima as a tertiary or “donatus,” and was subsequently accepted as a lay brother (1603). He set an example to his fellow religious by his profound humility and was venerated by the people for his heroic charity towards the poor and the sick, for whom he built a small hospital. He was favoured with special mystical graces (ecstasies and raptures), and numerous extraordinary occurrences are related of him. He was beatified by Gregory XVI on 8 Aug. 1837, and the cause of his canonization is presently under way. Devotion to Bl. M. is very widespread in the Americas and among black Catholics. Feast day: 5 Nov.